RBS 'hides' mortgages as regulators told it to retrain its sales staff

Royal Bank of Scotland has stopped actively selling mortgages to British customers for three weeks after closer scrutiny from regulators prompted it to retrain all of its sales staff.

Concern about future mis-selling fines led to the bank pulling promotional mortgage material from branches of both RBS and NatWest this month and to it sending 440 mortgage advisers for training to ‘ensure they were up to standard’.

RBS had planned to carry out the retraining in just nine days early this month, but it confirmed yesterday that the retraining would not be finished until the New Year.

Concerns: RBS has stopped actively selling mortgages to British customers for three weeks

Mortgages brochures are not expected to be replaced until this week at the earliest.

RBS denied that the move was made as
the result of specific concerns or that any of its advisers were guilty
of mis-selling mortgages to customers.

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A spokesman said: ‘This is far more
general than specific. In the wake of problems, such as Payment
Protection Insurance, we want to make absolutely sure our training is up
to speed. People who want appointments will get them. We have made sure
there is no disruption, but equally we are not going out and doing a
big push.’

Figures published this month showed lending by RBS, which is more than
80 per cent taxpayer-owned, to individuals and businesses fell by
£2.7billion in the third quarter.